Inmate from Trenton files federal lawsuit over jail beating
TRENTON » The incarcerated city man who suffered serious injuries last month during an alleged scuffle with Pennsylvania corrections officers has now filed a federal lawsuit in New Jersey.
James Covington, a physically and mentally disabled 36-year-old Trenton resident, says Bucks County “prison guards” broke his collarbone during an Oct. 4 assault and subsequently failed to provide him with “reasonable and necessary medical care.”
Patrick J. Whalen, Covington’s attorney of record, on Tuesday filed a verified complaint in U.S. District Court demanding immediate injunctive relief, damages and a trial by jury on five central causes of action, including allegations that authorities across state lines exhibited “deliberate indifference” to Covington’s medical needs and subjected him to a false arrest and malicious prosecution.
As previously reported by The Trentonian, Bucks County prosecutors last month charged Covington with aggravated assault and terroristic threats on allegations he verbally lashed out and physically struck a corrections officer in the chest while incarcerated at the Doylestownbased jail also known as Bucks County Prison. The corrections officer wrestled Covington to the ground, but only Covington emerged from the incident with injuries, according to the probable cause affidavit.
In the lawsuit, Whalen says the charges against his client are improper, retaliatory in nature and violate the rights, privileges and immunities guaranteed to Covington by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Covington’s lawsuit has been filed against several officials and agencies from three different counties across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. For example, the Mercer County Correction Center in the Garden State and the warden of the Montgomery County jail in Pennsylvania are named as defendants in the complaint for playing a role in the alleged ongoing failure to provide Covington with medical care to surgically repair and treat his serious injuries.
Covington was being jailed at the Bucks County Correctional Facility because he owed more than $2,500 in probation fees to Mercer and Bucks counties and failed to pay them on time. Since the Oct. 4 scuffle, a Mercer County-hired orthopedic specialist assessed Covington’s condition and ordered the injured inmate to undergo surgery effective Nov. 1, according to his federal complaint, which says Covington had not received the necessary surgery as of the lawsuit’s filing.
“To date,” the complaint says, “the surgery that was ordered for Plaintiff has inexplicably, unjustifiably, and unconstitutionally not taken place. As a result, Plaintiff has been caused to suffer unnecessarily.”
Authorities in early November transferred Covington to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania, according to his complaint. Covington alleges he was “subjected to racist taunts and slurs, both prior and during the incident” that left him injured on Oct. 4. He further alleges that Bucks County corrections officers used “unreasonable and excessive force” against him.
The alleged scuffle occurred Oct. 4, but authorities did not file felony assault charges against the inmate until Oct. 18 in a matter entitled Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. James A. Covington Jr. The arresting officer is identified as Anthony P. DiSandro of the Bucks County Prison system.
Covington’s lawsuit says there is “no dispute that he sustained this very serious injury” and that he has been walking around with a serious injury — an injury requiring surgery — for over one month. “He has been forced to endure unnecessary and unjustifiable pain and suffering as the result of the denial and delay of medical treatment for these obvious injuries,” the lawsuit alleges.
In addition to suffering “great pain and suffering,” Covington also “suffered and continues to suffer serious mental anguish, fear, psychological and emotional distress, humiliation, physical pain and suffering, some or all of which may be permanent,” the lawsuit states.
Government agencies typically do not comment on pending litigation, and that is the policy of Bucks and Mercer counties.
“The County of Bucks cannot offer any comment regarding the questions you have forwarded regarding Mr. Covington at this time,” Bucks County Commissioner’s Office spokesman Christopher Edwards said in an emailed statement last month, as previously reported by The Trentonian. “The County also cannot comment on any pending or potential legal matter.”
The corrections officer who physically scuffled with Covington last month is identified as Andrew Amaroso in Covington’s lawsuit. The surname may be misspelled, however, because the Bucks County Commissioners about two years ago appointed Andrew C. Amoroso to the title of corrections officer at the county’s main jail, according to the minutes of the commissioners meeting on Oct. 7, 2015.
In any event, Covington is suing the following named defendants: The Bucks County Department of Corrections, Bucks County Corrections Director Christopher A. Pirolli, Bucks County Correctional Facility Warden Paul Lagana, Bucks County Chief Operating Officer Brian Hessenthaler, Montgomery County Correctional Facility Warden Julio M. Algarin, Bucks corrections officers Andrew Amaroso and Laws, Bucks corrections department investigator Anthony P. DiSandro, Bucks County Detective Lt. Robert Gorman, Bucks corrections Lt. Burkhart, the Mercer County Correction Center and Mercer County Correction Center Warden Charles Ellis.